Former FDC presidential candidate petitions party for dismissing members who contested as Independents

The FDC secretary for mobilisation for Bugangari Sub county (Rukungiri), Moses Byamugisha has petitioned the opposition party for dismissing members who stood as independents in the January 2021 elections.

Prior to the elections, the opposition party conducted its primary elections where a number of defeated members chose to contest as independents, many citing the party’s failure to handle their petitions properly.

As a result, the party’s secretary general, through a letter dated December 7, 2020, dismissed some of these members from the FDC party. These included; Ingrid Kamateneti Ingrid Turinawe, Winnie Babihuga and Tweyambe Darius.

However, in his petition, dated March 10, to the chairperson, FDC National Election Tribunal, Byamugisha who is also FDC former presidential candidate has challenged the dismissal of members from the party on a number of grounds among which he cites the FDC national leadership’s neglect of their duty to set an election tribunal as provided for in the party constitution.

“Instead what we witnessed in the 2020 party primaries is that the secretary general assumed the powers of the tribunal and went around withdrawing and awarding party flags with undue regard to the many genuine complaints at hand and this amounted to abuse of office,” Byamugisha noted.

To this he gave an example of Tweyambe whose petition which had six grounds received only one sentence by the national chief electoral Commissioner who was a defendant in the petition.

This according to Byamugisha was an abuse of natural justice principle.

Byamugisha also accuses FDC party of setting precedents where its own members contested as independents while holding senior party positions and neither did they loose their membership of the party nor loose the party positions they were holding.

“An example amongst many is the case of Hon Reagun Okumu who while serving as the FDC vice president for Northern Uganda contested as an independent candidate for MP Aswa county in Gulu district against the FDC flag bearer Hon Acire Christopher. Actually, a similar scenario happened to Hon Pipi Oki in the Kitgum district in the 2015 primary elections,”

Furthermore, Byamugisha says the dismissal of members was illegal and untenable in law. In his view, the secretary general acted illegally when he purported to exercise powers of dismissal that he does not have.

The secretary general’s dismissal according to Byamugisha quoted article 12(d) of the constitution which provides for the circumstance where a member automatically looses his/her party membership after contesting as an independent candidate.

Byamugisha, however, contests that this particular provision does not mention the powers of dismissal.

“Instead, dismissal of a member is provided for under Article 12(c) which provides that membership shall cease upon “Dismissal of a member by the party’s recognized constitutional organ,”

Further, Byamugisha noted that the dismissal hinders the spirit of reconciliation among the FDC leaders and members.

He says that whereas FDC leaders and members would like to reconcile with their colleagues, they are frustrated by the secretary general’s letter of dismissal that is being explained to imply that the members who contested as independents are out of the party.

“If we can talk about recruiting new members from the NRM, what is the relevance of the dismissal letter that makes it difficult if not impossible to re-unite with not just the two members mentioned in the dismissal letter but also hundreds of other independents around the country?” Byamugisha wondered.

Remedies sought

In his petition, Byamugisha wants the dismissal letter by the secretary general dated December 7, 2020, be declared illegal and set aside.

He also suggests that it be declared that independent candidates never lost their membership since the electoral process lacked a tribunal that would conclusively dispose off petitions.

He also wants the party leadership, to make sure that the relevant party branches are informed that the said members have never lost membership of the party.

Furthermore, Byamugisha calls for reinstating of the affected members who were ‘wrongfully’ dismissed back to the party positions that they held before the election because they were legally elected.

Byamugisha noted that FDC party is healing from a shock arising from its not nice performance in the 2021 general election and says this is not the right time to begin loosing several party members in circumstances that could be avoided.

The former FDC party presidential candidate expressed that the spirit of free entry and exit is deeply hurting the party and says there is need to spread love not hate, reconciliation and welcoming everyone who wants to be in the party.

“Mr Chairman, for some of us, it has been 21 years of struggle in opposition which has not been easy. Many of our colleagues have died, others maimed, some imprisoned while others have retired. So if we have people who are still passionate about pushing for change, let’s welcome them and work together.”